茅草

Witch \Witch\, n. [OE. wicche, AS. wicce, fem., wicca, masc.;
perhaps the same word as AS. w[=i]tiga, w[=i]tga, a
soothsayer (cf. {Wiseacre}); cf. Fries. wikke, a witch, LG.
wikken to predict, Icel. vitki a wizard, vitka to bewitch.]
1. One who practices the black art, or magic; one regarded as
possessing supernatural or magical power by compact with
an evil spirit, esp. with the Devil; a sorcerer or
sorceress; -- now applied chiefly or only to women, but
formerly used of men as well.

There was a man in that city whose name was Simon, a
witch. --Wyclif (Acts
viii. 9).

He can not abide the old woman of Brentford; he
swears she's a witch. --Shak.

2. An ugly old woman; a hag. --Shak.

3. One who exercises more than common power of attraction; a
charming or bewitching person; also, one given to
mischief; -- said especially of a woman or child.
[Colloq.]

4. (Geom.) A certain curve of the third order, described by
Maria Agnesi under the name versiera.

5. (Zo["o]l.) The stormy petrel.

6. A Wiccan; an adherent or practitioner of {Wicca}, a
religion which in different forms may be paganistic and
nature-oriented, or ditheistic. The term witch applies to
both male and female adherents in this sense.
[PJC]

{Witch balls}, a name applied to the interwoven rolling
masses of the stems of herbs, which are driven by the
winds over the steppes of Tartary. Cf. {Tumbleweed}.
--Maunder (Treas. of Bot.)

{Witches' besoms} (Bot.), tufted and distorted branches of
the silver fir, caused by the attack of some fungus.
--Maunder (Treas. of Bot.)

{Witches' butter} (Bot.), a name of several gelatinous
cryptogamous plants, as {Nostoc commune}, and {Exidia
glandulosa}. See {Nostoc}.

{Witch grass} (Bot.), a kind of grass ({Panicum capillare})
with minute spikelets on long, slender pedicels forming a
light, open panicle.

{Witch meal} (Bot.), vegetable sulphur. See under
{Vegetable}.